


The Watermelon Journal

by monotonehell



Series: Watermelon [2]
Category: Andi Mack (TV)
Genre: M/M, mute!lester
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-31
Updated: 2019-03-11
Packaged: 2019-10-01 07:23:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17239949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/monotonehell/pseuds/monotonehell
Summary: As part of his impulse control management plan Reed is asked to keep a diary and reflect on his thoughts and actions. He is encouraged to write both the good and the bad things in his life, and it is to be completely private.Reed was never much of a writer, but he found himself writing about his robot parents, his more than best friend Lester, about how he feels about Tj and 'Tyrusaurus Rex'.And then there was the watermelon...





	1. _Jester_420_ has blocked you

“Damn right I’m pissed!” the man lowered his raised voice back to an almost monotone, “Now I have to go sell my entire gun collection.”

“Honey, the police never said you had to get rid of them. Just that they were not properly secured…” his wife calmly interjected.

“Whatever. I’m going to pack them all up and then I’m going down the pistol club and leave them on consignment.”

“It’s for the best, you haven’t touched them in months. Anyway while you’re doing that, I’m going down to my sister’s for a chat,” she turned to her son sitting at the kitchen table waiting for the riot act to be read to him, “Reed, honey, I hope you can learn from this situation. As we discussed, we’re going to get you some therapy or a counselor, or something on top of the community service you have to perform. Whatever it takes to get you under control.”

Without waiting for a response, she turned and walked out the front door, grabbing her car keys and a bottle of wine on her way out.

The young teen looked at his father, still expecting a lecture.

All he got was a calm, “Go to your room and think about what you’ve done.”

 

* * *

 

 

As Reed climbed the stairs he remembered less than an hour earlier when he had been called into the kitchen where the two police officers had been sitting with his parents.

He had been asked to sit with them and then the shit had hit the fan.

Tj had ratted him out to the cops for taking the gun to the quarry that day. But Reed knew he would. Reed had even made sure that Tj had invited Cyrus. With Cyrus there, Tj was sure to protecc, but also attacc.

Hell, the two were like a couple. Reed shipped it. He called them ‘Tyrus’. If Cyrus was gay for Tj, then Reed would be happy for them. Reed was always sad that he didn’t like Tj the way Tj apparently liked him, because he loved Tj, but just as a friend. After all, Tj wasn’t Lester.

He wasn’t pissed at Tj though.

Reed wanted Tj to rat him out.

Reed wanted the cops involved.

Reed wanted the cops to come arrest him.

Anything to get a response from his robot parents.

He felt numb as he entered his room. The most emotion that had happened was when his dad raised his voice when Reed had asked if he was pissed at him. He wanted them to engage with him, even if it was over something bad like taking his father’s gun to the quarry.

But not even this had gotten him the attention he craved. He was sent to his room, his mother was off drinking with his aunt, and his dad was off to the gun club for the first time in over a year. He watched out the window as his dad carried all the guns and paraphernalia, loaded them into the car and drove away.

Alone again.

He logged onto his games console and visited a random Minecraft server. After wandering around for a few minutes he found a few buckets and a pool of lava and proceeded to pour lava over people’s buildings. The griefing soon earned him a ban.

So he loaded up Fortnite and tried to play a few matches, but he was sniped over and over by the same player with a pistol. -- Ironic.

He threw the controller down and fell back onto his bed.

After wallowing in a quiet rage for a few minutes he got his phone out of his pocket and messaged Lester.

[xxWEEDxx: hey bro ru talking to me or are you pissed as well?]

[_Jester_420_: Im pissed @u]

‘Damn,’ Reed though but he noticed that Lester was still typing.

[_Jester_420_: but I wont stay pissed you know I can’t hate on you for more than 5 minutes]

Reed smiled. Lester would do anything for Reed and Reed knew it. Although to his credit he hadn’t pushed that power over him too far in recent years. When they were younger though, Reed had gotten Lester in serious trouble more than once. But Lester always forgave him.

[_Jester_420_: the cops just left here THE COPS! You brought cops into my house]

[_Jester_420_: I told them I thought you were bringing an airsoft gun and they let me off with a warning]

[_Jester_420_: so while Im still pissed @u… thats it bro]

There was no more ‘Lester is typing’ icon for a long while so Reed replied.

[xxWEEDxx: Im so so so sorry bro u know me Im stupid I do stupid things … but what do u mean thats it?]

[_Jester_420_: Mom says I cant see u for like a month and even if she didnt say it … I dunno man … I dont think I want to see you anymore]

Reed stared at the message for a full minute before responding.

[xxWEEDxx: u mean foreva?]

[_Jester_420_: maybe,,, I dunno,,, I need time man]

[_Jester_420_: dont message me or nothing I’ll let you know when Im done thinkin]

[WARNING: _Jester_420_ has blocked you. You can no longer send messages to this user.]

Reed stared at the notification. His best friend had just blocked him.

He curled up on his bed and cried himself to sleep.

 

* * *

 

 

Reed unlocked the front door of his house and entered. The alarm panel started to beep, meaning that no one else was home. As usual.

After two weeks of being excluded from school, and sitting at home mostly alone, today had been only his second outing. He couldn’t believe that he was in serious trouble with the law and his robot parents were still leaving him to conduct his life solo.

He entered his room and threw a journal on his bed before he pulled off the somewhat formal clothes his mother had laid out for him to wear to the counselor appointment.

He sat in his boxers on his bed flipping the journal over in his hands. It was red with a green spine.Then he noticed it had a design on the cover made of black tear drop shapes. It kinda looked like a watermelon. ‘Very girly,’ Reed decided.

The first session with the counselor he had decided to be a brat. He had decided to strike back at everyone. He was angry. Lester was still blanking him, his robots seemed to be giving him less attention now. He wasn’t sure how that was possible all that was left was the roof over his head, the clothes and food they provided. Sure he had everything a kid could desire growing up. Except attention. He was the classic ‘poor little rich kid’.

He had been relieved that the counselor wasn’t one of Cyrus’ parents. That may have been awkward. But he was still intent on playing up.

Tony, the guy had insisted on first names, was a seasoned professional. He’d pierced all of Reed’s emotional armor within thirty minutes. He’d verbally ripped out Reed’s still-beating heart, show it to him, before putting it back in his chest and then asked if Reed wanted his help.

Of course Reed wanted his help. This guy got it. This guy wanted Reed to open up. He wanted to listen to Reed. Even though he was being paid for his time, Reed could tell he was sincere. He’d felt more emotion from Tony in that session that he could remember getting from his robots

He’d walked out of that office low-key wishing that Tony was his dad, while high-key crying his heart out.

The second session was productive. Tony listened. He REALLY listened. He listened as Reed told him he was sad because his best friend in the Whole World was blanking him. He listened as Reed told him about how his parents, while taking good care of him and his health, never gave him any real attention or emotion. He listened while Reed told him about how ‘Tyrusaurus Rex’ had stomped all over his friendship with Tj.

‘Wait. What?’ Reed though as his sat in his boxers at home.

He had explained that ‘Tyrus’ was his friend Tj and Tj’s new bestie Cyrus. But why would he call them‘Tyrusaurus Rex’… and “stomped all over his friendship with Tj”?

He wasn’t angry with Tj.

Was he?

The session had ended so there was no time to explore that, but Tony had pulled a journal from a box of many and thrown it to Reed.

Tony explained that as part of his impulse control management plan Reed is asked to keep a diary and reflect on his thoughts and actions. He encouraged Reed to write both the good and the bad things in his life, it was to be completely private, but if he wanted to talk about anything he wrote then to bring it up in a session. He added that Reed should write about ‘Tyrus-saurus Rex’ and once he’d gathered his thoughts they could talk about that next time.

“But I’m not angry with Tj,” Reed affirmed aloud to no one but himself and his boxers.

He grabbed a pen from his bedhead, sat cross legged on his bed and began to write.

 

* * *

 


	2. Unblocked

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reed's back at school after his suspension, but how will he deal with Lester's blanking?

Reed wasn’t sure if he was just being paranoid or if kids were actually talking about him as he walked up the hallway towards his school locker. He stole a few glances in several directions, which confirmed groups of kids were looking his way.

It was his first day back after the exclusion ended. He expected some attention. After all this was middle school, where drama was a thing. Normally he was happy being the centre of attention. He would bask in notoriety. But it was different this time. He had alienated his best friend and his more than best friend. He often hung about with all the basketball guys, but Lester and Tj -- they were his family. His robots never gave him any love, he took what his friends gave.

He noticed the Watermelon Journal in his backpack as he loaded some books into his locker. He wondered why he had brought that to school. He should have left it home, as he had written some very personal stuff in there. For some reason, he suspected it was a need to impress Tony, he had taken to journal writing with a vengeance. That first night he had written pages, just letting all his thoughts torrent onto paper. His wrist was sore from all the writing. Even as a middle schooler he hardly wrote anything using a pen and paper. It was all typed into a computer or thumbed into a smartphone or tablet.

He closed his locker, turned and slumped back into the locker’s door. It was only then that he noticed Lester looking right at him from up the hallway. Lester’s face was a confused jumble of sadness, happiness, anger and a few other emotions.

Reed decided to play dirty and use Lester’s kryptonite. He half smiled, let a hint of tears form in his eyes and put on the most impressive display of puppy dog eyes this side of the Mississippi.

Upon seeing this, Lester angrily threw his bag onto the floor, grabbed his phone from his pocket, then swiped and touched at its screen.

Reed’s phone vibrated with a message.

[NOTICE: _Jester_420_ has un-blocked you. You can now send messages to this user.]

Reed looked up from his phone with hope in his eyes, but Lester had disappeared.

 

* * *

 

Reed sat in his first period class looking at the chat app but there was nothing new after Lester had unblocked him.

‘Am I supposed to say something?’ Reed wondered, ‘What is he waiting for?’

“You’d think that someone who had just missed two weeks of school would be paying attention in class right now,” Reed’s teacher said sarcastically. 

Reed slipped his phone into pocket and pretended to pay attention to the lesson.

‘Should I say sorry again?’

‘If I say the wrong thing… will he block me again?’

‘What is the wrong thing?’

‘What is the right thing?’

 

* * *

After the morning classes Reed sat in a quiet corner of the school composing and deleting multiple messages, before he settled on…

[xxWEEDxx: You’re my most best friend and I miss you.]

He felt a shadow fall over him and he looked up to see Lester. He smiled but all Lester did was shake his head disapprovingly.

“You gotta help me, bro. I’m dumb… I mean… shit sorry… stupid. I don’t know what you need me to do. Just tell me, please? I’ll do anything for you.”

All Lester did was shake his head almost imperceptibly and walk away.

Lester didn’t say much, he couldn’t, but Reed usually knew what was on his more-than-best-friend’s mind. It wasn’t telepathy, but anyone who played pictionary against them would swear it was.

‘I get it… it has to come from me. But I still don’t know what IT is,’ Reed thought.

 

* * *

Monday 7:12pm

[xxWEEDxx: is it something I gotta say sorry about?]

[_Jester_420_: nah]

 

Monday 7:54pm

[xxWEEDxx: is it something I gotta do]

[_Jester_420_: yea]

[xxWEEDxx: I dunno then…]

[_Jester_420_: think harder]

 

Monday 8:34pm

[xxWEEDxx: I give up,,, what?]

[_Jester_420_: no]

 

Tuesday 4:15pm

[xxWEEDxx: I still dunno]

 

Tuesday 6:17pm

[xxWEEDxx: fuck!]

[_Jester_420_: no]

[xxWEEDxx: ur funneh]

[_Jester_420_: no]

 

Wednesday 10:43am

[xxWEEDxx: pls Lester! I miss u so much! Just tell me this is killing me… I’ll be your slave! whatever you want!]

[_Jester_420_: close but nope]

[xxWEEDxx: wtf does that mean?]

[_Jester_420_: argh y r u so dense?]

[xxWEEDxx: I told u I was stupid]

[_Jester_420_: fine]

 

Wednesday 11:03am

[xxWEEDxx: fine what?]

 

Wednesday 11:17am

[xxWEEDxx: bro?]

 

Wednesday 11:03am

[xxWEEDxx: Lester?]

[xxWEEDxx: pls]

 

* * *

 

“So how was the return to school?” Tony asked as he settled into the comfy chair opposite the one he had parked Reed in.

“S’ok.”

“The kids been treating you ok?”

“Yea.”

Tony looked over Reed from hair to feet.

“Everything about your demeanor says it’s not ok.”

Reed moved his hands to cover his crotch, “My what?” he asked shocked.

“How you carried yourself into the room, the way you scuffed over to the chair, the one syllable answers…”

Reed sat up in the chair a little and looked down at the interesting mono-coloured carpet.

“Reed, did something happen this week? You seem very withdrawn.”

It took a few minutes for Reed to decide to open up but he eventually told Tony that his best friend was no longer blanking him, but was playing this frustrating game of guess why I’m angry.

 

* * *

 

Tony had suggested that Reed go back to his watermelon journal and read all that he had written so far. Reed still wasn’t completely convinced that writing down all his thoughts was helpful. At first he had only done it to impress Tony, for some reason he wanted to impress Tony. But after writing a page the first time, he found himself just venting at the journal.

He had written pages before his pen started to fail. Feeling the need to continue to write, he’d ransacked his room and his Dad’s office looking for a working pen. Now he was back, sat cross-legged on his bed and about to continue writing when the doorbell rang.

“Fuck!” Reed exclaimed before he wandered down to see who was at the door.

He felt like the bottom of his stomach dropped to the floor when he saw a stoney-faced Lester holding out a watermelon to him. Dumbstruck, he simply took the proffered melon. He looked at its green surface and noticed black writing. But when he glanced back up to ask Lester, “wtf is this?”, Lester was already gone.

He carried the watermelon back to his bedroom and sat it on his bed, when he noticed a message on his phone.

[_Jester_420_: READ IT]

 

* * *


End file.
